Not Dead Yet
by I am Ashlyn Marie
Summary: Rick knew ava, she lived on their street. And she ended up dealing with rick while he was a cop on more than one occasion. He believes she was still a good kid when they are reunited after the fall of what seems like everything. He introduces her to the makeshift family that survived
1. Chapter 1

I've been walking for days, my backpack was heavy on my back and carving its strap into my shoulder. The sun was just rising and I wanted to find a place to rest. I hate traveling during the day, it's hot- plus if I travel at night I lower the chance of running into people. Which seems to be a bigger risk than anything else I can think of. Walkers, starving, dehydration- I can handle not dying from those things, I can control that, but another person with Intentions I'm not sure of. I can't control that.

I was walking in the woods, seems like that's all I walk in nowadays. I was looking at my surroundings, trying to get my mind off the fact of how tired and worn I was. My legs were stinging and my arms were aching. But If I learned anything from myself, it's that if I stop, I'm not gonna get back up. As I kept walking I realized the trees were starting to decrease and soon enough there was nothing. It was a complete change in surroundings, it was all flat grass as far as I could see. I was skeptical until I realized that the flat, cleared ground had a perimeter of trees. Seems like the land was cleared in the middle of the woods. But why? Why in the hell would someone need to clear this much space? Unless… As soon as the idea popped into my head. I readjusted my backpack onto my other shoulder and trudged up the faint hill.

As I walked up closer I realized that what I hoped to see is what I indeed saw, A farm with a big white house as I walked towards the house I saw a girl walk out of the front door, instinct

was to dive for cover, but then I realized it wasn't in the woods anymore and there was no cover. So I just kind of stood there motionless staring at her. Moments went by until she realized I was there

"Hey!" she hollered. Starting to step off the porch towards me. The further she walked down the hill the faster she walked, soon she was full on sprinting. When she reached me is when I started to fall and that was it.

I woke up lying in a bed I had a terrible headache. The door opened and the same girl came through a door with water and some food.

"Hi," she smiled. "I brought you some water."

I sat up in the bed and mouthed her thanks before taking the water into my hands.

"daddy said you passed out from dehydration, he was worried about you. How old are you?"

"I'm 16" I answered honestly.

She raised her eyebrows a little. "are you alone?"

I nodded meekly, taking another drink of water "unfortunately, yes"

A man with white hair then walked through the door and looked at me. Maggie noticed and told me it was her father who was named Hershel, he was the one who helped me, to my advantage he was a vet. "Maggie here said you fainted walking up that hill."

I smiled a little and nodded embarrassed at the whole situation- People I don't even know are helping me all because I was dumb enough not to drink enough water.

"well after a little rest you should be back on your feet and on your way."

Maggie raised her head up at this and protested "daddy she can't go back out there-"

"she has to Maggie we don't have enough-"

"daddy she's all alone! She simply can't!"

Hershel looked at me "Is this true? Are you alone? You look a little young to be by yourself."

I was about to answer but Maggie beat me to it."Shes 16"

Hershel looked surprised and turned to me. I nodded telling him that what she said was true.

I was wondering through the woods, I got bored during the days, plus I liked the idea that I was learning my surroundings in case I had to leave. Maggie didn't like it but I made a deal with Hershel if I were to stay I had to help out with what they had asked me to, and I had to stay out of their way- meaning if I needed food I had to get it myself. I've been traveling, walking on my own until I came across the farm. I could handle it.

As I was walking I the woods I heard a gunshot. Dumbass, Don't people know not to use a gun if they don't have to? Especially for only one walker. I have I gun myself, and my bow. I found the gun along with a silencer shortly after everything happened, just in case I happened to lose my bow- or run out of arrows.

I decided to make my way back to my camp. God, I hate this heat. I walked to my tent and unzipped the zipper and stepped in I lied down and let myself just think. About anything. I must have drifted off because I woke up to Becky telling me that I had to help Hershel.

I walked in and was immediately put to work Beth and I was getting water and any kind of antibiotics we could find. Apparently the gunshot was from What Otis described as a hunting accident. He went to shoot a deer and accidently shot a boy his father brought him here with Otis. I felt bad for the boy and his father, but I also felt bad for Hershel in a way. First it was me whom he helped, now it was the boy. He starting to become a hospital it seems. I know he didn't ask for this. After all, he's only a vet, he's not a doctor.

I walked outside and I realized that there was a camper out front with people walking around. My tent was thankfully untouched and still in it original spot. I walked down passed the camp.

"hey," An older man stopped me I stopped and looked at him acknowledging his presence he nodded towards my tent "is that yours?"

I nodded "yea it is"

He nodded and walked towards me and offered me his hand "I'm dale"

I shook his hand "Ava"

He ushered to everyone else walking around, sneaking glances of curiosity at me "this is our group" a blonde girl walked up beside dale and looked at me. Dale looked next to him and said: "This is Andrea, Andrea this is Ava."

Andrea smiled and ushered her head to the house "you have a nice house."

I shook my head "it's not mine." she quirked a brow, I nodded towards my tent, and she nodded in understanding making an 'oh' face, but she didn't question it.

After making small talk with Andrea for a few moments. I caught sight of a man with a crossbow staring at me. Andrea caught my gaze "that's Daryl, you don't hear much from him, he tends to keep to himself."

The door shut to the house and I saw a man with a sheriff's hat walking down the porch steps. I couldn't make out his face. He sat down and a woman with short hair gave him some type of food. He looked at her and took off his hat. And started to eat. That's when I saw his face

"Officer grimes?" I asked almost unconvinced that in this entire camp of strangers, I actually saw a familiar face.

He looked up at me and his eyes widened when he saw me "Ava? Is that you?" by this point everyone was looking at us. Something kicked in me. I don't know what is was, maybe the fact that I finally saw someone for the first time in months. That I actually knew before all of this. I don't know but I ran up to him and hugged him. He hugged back, after a few moment we pulled back. "Ava, how'd you get here?" Curiosity and concern in his voice.

I smirked a little at the surprise looked he had on his face. "I could ask you the same thing."

His smile faltered a little and he started to rub the back of his neck. Then I got it. "Wait, is carl the one who-"

"Yea." his gazed dropped down to the ground 'oh my god' was all that went through my mind.

"Rick I- is- is Lori here?" he nodded and I sighed in relief, at least, he was together with his family in all of this.

"yea she's in there with him, I was to but its-." I nodded in understanding. For the first time, I looked past Rick to see the rest of his group starring at us. Probably confused as hell. Rick took notice and attempted to clear up the tense atmosphere. "Everybody this is Ava. She was a good friend of ours before all of this."


	2. Chapter 2

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p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""You two know each other?" Dale along with the rest of the group was still eyeballing us. Not with suspicion, but in almost- amusement?/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"I laughed and stared at my shoes. I think Rick got the memo I was putting out, he put a hand on my shoulder./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Yep, This here was Carl's biggest crush" I smiled. It was true, Carl had the biggest crush on me, and it was adorable. I admit, though he was a cute kid so I just kind of played along. "And he's sure gonna be happy to see you when he gets up and walking around"/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"I was about to respond, but in the corner of my eye, I saw the door to the house opening again. Lori was walking out, Rick seemed to have met my gaze because his arm left my shoulder and he started to walking that general direction./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"My eyes left the ground and looked at where Rick and Lori was. Rick was telling her something, assuming it was that I was here because she then looked right at me. I smiled back and walked up to her, as soon as I was close enough she engulfed me in a hug./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Lori its so good to see you" I managed to say through our embrace, we pulled away and I got a good look at her and she looked so tired and stressed. But what mother would if her son was-/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Lori I heard about Carl. Is he alright?" she looked at me and at that point I could truly see how stressed and tired she was. She nodded./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Well, its getting late" Rick started. Drawing everyone's attention to him. "Ava, would you like to join us for dinner?"./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""I'd love to" I responded, "but it looks like you have enough people on your hands. I nodded my head towards to all the people just slightly far from where we now stood. "Are you sure?" I continued "I mean, I have food. I'd hate to impose….."/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Absolutely, We'd love to have you, it'd be like before. Plus I'm sure the group would love to get to know you." Rick ushered me down the little hill towards the group. As rick headed down to the group their head shot up for a second, acknowledging his presence "Guys do you mind if Ava joins us for dinner?" The group either shook their head or responded with a mumbled 'sure'. "/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""I think that's a lovely idea, Rick." I think it was Carol who responded .She had such a gentle voice like a mother would have, but there were no other kids I saw or knew of. Except for carl. "A friend of yours is a friend of ours." That's sweet./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"—–/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""So Ava, tell us about yourself." Dale asked me. After I finally agreed to eat with Ricks group. Carol and Andrea got out the food and started to cook the squirrel. That.. Daryl? had gotten from his hunting trip./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"Their group actually had their routine set up pretty well, they had more food than I would have thought. Carol even managed to have some spices in the RV for when they actually had to cook, which was obviously the meat or fish Daryl had caught that day./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Well," I began. I slightly glanced up, seeing everyone's eyes on me." My Name is Ava Reid, I am sixteen years old. I lived in the same neighborhood as the Grimes' did…" I kind of paused, wondering what exactly to tell them. Looked in the corner of my eye to see Rick smiling at me. I guess they sensed my hesitant behavior./p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""What's your favorite color?"/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Green"/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""What were your favorite hobbies?"/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;""Oh you know, Listening to music, drawing, video games."/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"Carol smiled, at me. "Sounds like you were a well-behaved kid"/p  
p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; outline: none 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 15px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box;"I was about to respond, but Rick beat me to it by laughing, causing him to choke on his water. I gave him the evil eye. After his fit of coughing, he realized what I was doing so which led him to laugh more. By now I was chuckling too. By the time we both stopped the entire group was looking at us. Obviously not getting the 'inside joke' Rick and I had./p  
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